In Rome’s early days, most citizens owned their small farms. Over time, however, the vast number of free farmers worked as tenants for large landowners. They paid the owners rent and kept the crops they raised. Some landowners also used a system called sharecropping: Instead of charging rent, they took a share of the crops their tenants raised. Slaves were also used to work large farms, although the number of slaves on farms began to decrease during the first century B. C.E. Owning and taking care of slaves was more expensive than simply hiring tenant farmers.
From the end of the Republic on, most tenants and farmers who owned their own small plots of land struggled to survive. Farm life was difficult, centering on a long list of never-ending chores. Farmers and their
Families typically raised grain, vegetables, fruit, and livestock. They also harvested grapes and olives, which they sold to the larger estates.
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Close to the Soil
The Romantic idea that farmers lived better lives and made better citizens then city residents continued well past the end of the Roman Empire. In the United States, President Thomas Jefferson often wrote that farmers' values and their close ties to the land made them the best citizens. He proposed policies meant to help protect the farmers' interests over the economic concerns of merchants and bankers. That notion also shaped the political policies of President Andrew Jackson and U. S. politicians known as populists—a word related to the Latin word populares, the Roman political faction that supported the common people.
For the poor and most workers, wheat was a main part of their diet, either as bread or made into a porridge called puls. Most families did not have their own ovens for baking bread, although large farms did have them. Meat was rarely served in a poor Roman’s home. More common were beans and local fruit. Wine or vinegar mixed with water was a common drink.
In the provinces, the average people faced some of the same difficulties the typical Roman farmer faced. In addition, the provincials dealt with the extra demands Rome placed on them in the form of taxes and tribute-money or goods that ensured Rome would not attack them. The provincials had to provide food-and sometimes shelter-for the soldiers, in addition to the products they sent to Rome. The Romans argued that even if the provincials suffered some difficulties, they received something better in return: The Pax Romana protected them from outside attack and created an economic system that eventually brought new wealth to the provinces. In general, these claims were correct. The Romans brought order and prosperity to many of their provinces.
World History
